I was contacted a while back (an inexcusably long while back, as it happens — my apologies!) by Zen, who passed along a bit of an addon module for Dungeon Keeper based on the first level of the Abyss in Ultima Underworld.

As Zen doesn’t have a website to host the project at for himself, he has made it available to the world via Aiera, and I have (finally!!) created a project entry for it. Check thou it out, O Reader, if you’ve still got those Dungeon Keeper discs tucked away in a drawer or closet!

Also, I have added a download for the Ultima 6 Project’s Milestone 5 release to that project’s entry, so if you haven’t grabbed it from somewhere else already, you can now get it here as well.

Also, other news, courtesy of Dino’s Ultima Page:

Ultima V: Lazarus

Cheerful Dragon has released version 1.29 of his various mods and bugfixes for this remake of Ultima 5. These can be downloaded either at the previous forum link, or via the project entry here at Aiera.

Seven Towers Exult Mods

Marzo has released updates to his mods for Exult, for both The Black Gate (Keyring) and Serpent Isle (Fixes). The latest revisions of both can be downloaded through their respective project entries here at Aiera:

• Black Gate Keyring
• Serpent Isle Fixes

Ultima: Iris

Apparently, the project’s developers took home first prize at the Dusmania 10 hobby game development meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. Congrats!

Ultima 5 for TI Calculators

Ranman has released version 1.01 of his port of Ultima 5 to the Texas Instruments calculator. The up-to-date download can be found via the project entry here.

Exult

This Ultima 7 remake has been updated recently — or, rather, the unstable 1.4 version has been updated, as has Exult Studio and its accompanying tools. The Exult team’s plugins for GiMP have also been updated this month, and the whole mess of things can be downloaded via the project entry here.

EUO

This Ultima-inspired game has seen the release of version 0.16 of its rudimentary 3D client, which can be downloaded via the project entry here at Aiera.

Ultima Restoration

This comprehensive multi-project has released screenshots of the Kilrathi space station from their remake of Ultima 1. With this completed, they now have all the cities, dungeons, and space stations fully mapped in the game — which, if I do say so myself, is damn good progress!

They’ve also added links to a good couple-dozen Neverwinter Nights modules that I’m going to have to sort through in short order, so…well, it’s nice to know in advance what I’ll be up to for at least part of next week.

Also, the Wing Commander CIC team are attempting to back up what remains of the Origin Systems data library. They are looking for people with experience with this sort of thing, so if you’re one of those people who lives and breathes in backup tapes, you might want to check their project out.

Produced by: Max Breedon
Website: EUO
Releases:
* EUO Installer (3.34 MB)
* Patcher Update (use only if needed) (99.65 KB)
* Launcher (Client Configurator) (24.68 KB)
* Map Editor (158.8 KB)
* 3D Client (253.32 KB)

Borrowing a fair bit from other RPGs, EUO is intended to be a real-time, single/multi-player, persistent-world RPG…one that looks and plays much like Ultima 4 or Ultima 5. The project site proudly proclaims that those looking for mouse support and Diablo 3-style graphics should seek their fix elsewhere.

EUO uses a Ultima Online-like skill system, without player classes. Combat is based on dice rolling like in Neverwinter Nights (and with more Ultima Online influences, apparently). Although the original EUO did feature a U4-like tileset, the current iteration is completely original (although most monsters and traps will be familiar to Ultima 5 fans). Spells can be cast using either the Ultima 5 runes, or through a simpler list for the less-than-Ultima-proficient.

Also, the game now incorporates the LUA scripting language, meaning that the player can influence the dungeons to a greater degree through certain key actions. Leveling is done at shrines, with stats being upgraded along the same lines as happened in Ultima 6.

The game features over 100 NPCs and over 50 quests, with more being added all the time. And now, a 3D client is even available!

Ultima Restoration developer Saduj contacted me to let me know that another utility has been added to his team’s collection of Neverwinter Nights modifications — an Ultima-style conversation system to replace the default system in NWN.

By default, the conversation system in NWN is a bit too primitive to support the sort of conversations one has come to expect from an Ultima game — achieving Ultima-style conversations using it requires a lot of node repetition.

At any rate, I’ve added the new conversation system files to the project entry here at Aiera, so please do check them out if you’ve been using any of the other utilities that this team has released…and I have it on good authority that a few people are doing just that.

Produced by: Saduj
Website: Ultima Restoration
Releases:

Utilities
* Ultima Potions (hak pak) (376.62 KB)
* Ultima Potions (demo module) (37.02 KB)
* Ultima Potions v2 (hak pak) (375.84 KB)
* Ultima Potions v2 (demo module) (41.29 KB)
* Venom Dagger (erf import file) (2.44 KB)
* Venom Dagger (hak pak) (36.27 KB)
* Venom Dagger icons (700 bytes)
* Venom Dagger source (11.91 KB)
* NPC Schedules (erf import file) (64.71 KB)
* NPC Schedules (demo module) (455.61 KB)
* NPC Schedules (readme) (4.1 KB)
* Moongates (erf import file) (23.66 KB)
* Moongates (demo module) (198.47 KB)
* Savage Empire Female Portrait Pack (3.23 MB)
* Savage Empire Male Portrait Pack (1.57 MB)
* Conversation System Demo (65.83 KB)
* Conversation System Files (29.87 KB)

This is actually a comprehensive collection of utilities and in-progress remakes of Ultima titles, all done in the Neverwinter Nights engine. The list of utilities is pretty comprehensive, including functional moongates (with Orb of the Moons!), NPC scheduling, animated potions, a conversation system to replace the default NWN system, and a very good reproduction of the venomous dagger of Ultima 7 fame.

But even more promising is the list of remakes that are being put together by this team and others. Currently in progress are remakes of Ultima 1, Ultima 7 (which provides the screenshot here), Ultima 8, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams. Most of these seem still to be in the early stages of development, but the Ultima 7 remake — which deals, it seems, only with the events of The Black Gate at present — looks to have progressed somewhat further.

Here is hoping, then, that this collective set of efforts bears much fruit in the future! As the projects progress, I’ll probably break off each remake into its own standalone entry. For now, this one omnibus entry will suffice.

I just got this in my inbox this morning. It’s a notice from NWN developer and Ultima fan Saduj that a new Ultima website — a combination of links to other Ultima projects and a series of Ultima-related projects all its own — has come online.

After 5 years of NWN development for the Origin universe we have gone public and began releasing screenshots of current projects and NWN content for designers to use.

Restoration Forum:
ultimarestoration.darkbb.com/index.htm

NWN Team Portfolio:
nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Portfolios.Detail&id=159845&id=4016

All Team Submissions:
nwvault.ign.com

It’s a short message, and it actually doesn’t communicate enough, methinks. Though the description is brief, the project itself is massive (and will mean a good deal of work for me on the site here!).

Because it’s not only a collection of utilities for Neverwinter Nights developers who want to make Ultima-themed modules (although it is that too, and I’ll be borrowing more than a few of their innovations for Lost Sosaria!). It is also a collection of NWN-based remakes of Ultima titles, including:

• Ultima 1
• Ultima 7
• Ultima 8
• Savage Empire
• Martian Dreams

The projects all look spectacular, and many of them have more than a few screenshots up for the good Reader to look at.

This is, I cannot understate, a massive undertaking by a dedicated team of Ultima fans, and I for one look forward to both using, and later enjoying, the fruits of their labours. As yet, only the various Ultima-related utilities are available for download, and I haven’t yet had time to create project entries at the site here to cover the multitude of projects. But rest assured that I will be doing so as soon as I find a moment!

Update: For the time being, I have created one omnibus project entry for Ultima Restoration. As the various remakes progress in their devleopment arcs, I will branch off each into its own project entry.